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FORMER IRELAND’S GOT Talent contestant Brandon Webb, who was put into an induced coma after he took MDMA at Electric Picnic last year, is called on festival-goers not to experiment with drugs.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Miriam, the 20-year-old said he promised his mother he wouldn’t take drugs at the festival after she gave him the “drug talk”.
“I’ve never touched drugs before. I wasn’t even a big drinker at the time,” Webb said.
However, he went on to say that his “guard just came down” on the final night of the festival and he decided to experiment.
“This little crystal was handed to me,” he said.
About an hour or two later I just said go on sure I’ll take it, it’s the last day. I took it and I paid the price for it.
Webb said he sat down on a chair and within 15 minutes he “didn’t feel right”.
“As I was sitting in the chair I started having a mini stroke on my left hand side, my whole left side was gone. I actually stood up and I just collapsed and my heart stopped there and then,” he said.
Webb said he was lucky that a girl he knew was present and gave him CPR.
He was then taken to Naas hospital “where things just went from bad to worse”.
“There was… more than 300 seizures in the space of an hour, two hours, obviously my mam and dad and that were called and they came in,” he said.
“My mum said to me, ‘I was standing looking at you with the nurse and we thought your heart was going to come out through your skin, it was beating that fiercely’,” Webb recalls.
Because he had so many seizures, the doctors decided to put Webb into an induced coma.
He was put into the coma on the Monday morning and doctors woke him up on the Tuesday night. He said he had another seizure immediately and he was put under again.
“That is when they said, ‘right this isn’t good, so everyone was preparing to say goodbye to me’,” Webb said.
“Then I woke up on the Friday and all that was wrong was a collapsed lung,” he said.
Webb has called on festival-goers not to experiment with drugs this weekend.
“If … me talking about it saves one life this weekend, saves one person from thinking about taking [drugs] and they’re like ‘Well I saw that picture of that young lad who actually survived so I’m not going to take it’, that’s enough for me,” he said.
Drug seizures
Between today and Sunday, nearly 60,000 festival-goers are set to head to this year’s Electric Picnic.
Yesterday, the gates for the festival opened at 4pm and gardaí said a number of seizures of illegal drugs were made “within minutes”.
The drugs seized included cocaine, ketamine, LSD and MDMA.
Gardaí have said they will continue to carry out searches over the weekend and are reminding people attending that “any seizures made will have consequences for the individual”.
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Remember this only impacts women who do not receive company top ups on their mat leave pay so lowest paid . At an absolute minimum they should have their maternity extended as they can’t go back to their jobs . The gov showed how fast they could move by creating the pandemic payment so they need to address this anomoly.
@Laura Grimes: I agree that this anomaly needs to be addressed immediately as someone who has recently returned from Mat leave. However, it affects more than just low paid workers as those who have been on unpaid leave prior to returning to work will also be disproportionately affected.
@Laura Grimes: no it also affects women whose wages were topped up by their employer during maternity leave because Revenue are only considering the top-up amount and not taking into account the maternity benefit which makes up their total wage. On top of this it affects men on paternity benefit for three weeks over January or February.
I often wonder why the government have to be dragged kicking and screaming to adjudication before they relent and do the right thing, it just wastes more time and money (ours) before they are made to put it right, ..and followed by the usual apologises.
@Honeybee: because they’re just waiting for you to give up and forget about it…
This applies to men as well who were on paternity leave as well as anyone, male or female, who was on reduced or no pay in Jan or Feb 2020.. it is not related to maternity leave or women alone… This is not saying it is just or correct but I hope that men will be treated equally here too…
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Yes for the love of god let’s hope the men are treated equally here, because they always have to end their careers and take on the burden of childcare, it’s society’s most pressing issue today!
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: paternity leave is 6 weeks, so you would have at least one payslip from January or February. Non-issue
@Julian Friesel: What about people who might have been on sick leave, with say a heart attack? It does seem so obviously unjust and I don’t see why anyone would have to bring it to court to get it corrected.
This is discrimination they could just use the last full pay slip they had before they started maternity leave
@Buster Cat: You’re actually on to something there when you think about what you’ve said and the whole Covid19 payment scheme.
Television gives us a window on the world so why hasn’t the Irish Human Rights Commission objected to the laws restricting our right to own a television The government insists that those in direct provision have access to sky tv because government considers access a human right issue
@Richard Russell: What law restricts our right to own a tv, this is a new one to me?????
@Tony Harris: Tony you need a tv licence to own a tv
@Richard Russell: and that is a law that restricts your rights? I see without a tv you are making your own drama!
I came off work for an operation which was cancelled due to the pandemic. I stopped work 2 week before covid payment came in.Im stuck on 203 euro until i can have it. Until then i recieve €239 per week for me and 2 kids. My wife has 2 weeks left on maternity so we will loose out double. Ive worked for years. I Feel robbed.
@james kelly: to clarify i am on sick leave not the dole. Have health insurance but my job are not helping me. Even took my diesel card and toll tag until i come back
@james kelly: That’s wrong too – I’m sure anyone in your situation can do with an equal payment. I hope you get your operation as soon as possible.
And none of these unions TDs etc batted an eyelid when the covid payment wasn’t given to job seekers many who would have had payslips from January and February
have your say